


Like and Not Like

by FireEye



Category: Final Fantasy IV
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 12:04:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireEye/pseuds/FireEye
Summary: Edge overhears something he shouldn't.  And, naturally, gets involved where it's none of his business.





	Like and Not Like

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lassarina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lassarina/gifts).



This was starting to get unhealthy.

But it wasn’t like he sought it out.  Not this time, anyway.

Besides, they were arguing.  A little too subtly to hear from his vantage point, all he could pick up were harshly edged words and hushed whispers, so it wasn’t even like he was eavesdropping.  Even if arguing was good, for his purposes, he wasn’t here _on purpose_.

_Give a guy a break!_

Rydia’s face shown brightly in the torchlight, fierce like fire, so he focused on that.  Sure, his eyes started to wander down the soft curves of her neck and shoulder once or maybe twice, but he _focused_ on her face.  The brunt of her anger was lost on him, but her beauty shined through it like the sun.

“ _Enough!_ ”

The dragoon turned away from her, shrouding himself in shadow.  Kain’s finery cut a noble figure, but there was defeat in his bearing.  His fists clenched; his face was cold, expression cast in stone.

“I am not the mere illusion you carry within you.”  The words were low, but not hidden.  “I will keep the memory, but I will not be summoned and dismissed at will.”

 _Ohhhh, this was good_.

Pressed in his own shadow against the parapet wall, Edge studied the man as he approached, and closed his eyes as he brushed right by without seeing the prince hidden in the night.  A grin flashed, white teeth in the darkness, as Edge glanced after him.

It wavered a bit as Rydia fell back against the castle wall, half in the light of the moon, half in light of the chamber beyond, back to the shadows on the battlements.

Kain wasn’t yet gone, but he didn’t look back.

The summoner crumbled inward, sinking into the stone at her back.  Her shoulders shook with stifled sobs.

“I hate him,” she told the moon.

Edge perked up.

 _Hating him was even better_.

Tears were rolling down Rydia’s cheeks, glistening in the dim light.  It was a sorry sight.  This would have been a fine time to take his leave, quietly and without suspicion.  He could investigate tomorrow.

By the time Edge found himself stepping forward out of the shadow that concealed him, the step had already been taken.

 _Damn_.

Rydia pulled herself into a crouch to face him.  The quiet snarl was as dangerous as the beasts she held chained.

The same pull that had taken him out of the shadows took him another step further, and another.  He held out his empty hands, implying good will.

“No,” Edge answered.  “You don’t.”

That was entirely the problem.

Before he could crouch beside her, Rydia was rising to her feet.  Edge adjusted his strategy accordingly.  She regarded him with a petulant expression, one that, under other circumstances, he might have laughed at for its childishness.

Not that he was one to talk.

“You like him, is all.  A little too much.”

She hesitated, eyeing his open arms warily.  Then the wall she had built in haste started to crumble again.  This time, right into his embrace.

“And when you like someone a little too much, it can hurt.”

There were no new tears, but he felt her swallow harshly, clinging to him while locked within her own personal storm.  As he held her, soft and hurt but not yet broken, the thought of confronting Kain came to Edge’s mind.  The dragoon would just tell him to mind his own business, like he should have been doing all along.  And then they would scuffle like real men, because that was what you did in these situations.

“And if you let him walk away like that, it’s going to keep hurting.  He needs to understand that you _like_ liking him.”

Rydia peered up at him, and Edge glanced off into the dark.  He couldn’t face her expression so full of hope and wonder and keep up the facade.  He felt her head turn away from him, gaze pulled in the direction that Kain had gone.

And let go.

Like the man whose footsteps she followed, Rydia didn’t look back.

Edge sighed.

“Because he’s an idiot.”

This wasn’t right.  This was a goddess-be-damned _opportunity_ ; Edge should have been trying to woo her out from under the dragoon, not send her right back into his arms.

It wasn’t even that Kain was such a bad guy, it was just that...

...well...

“ _Damn_.”

Scrambling down the wall-walk after her, Edge hurried to catch up.

“Rydia, wait.  _Let me help_.”

**Author's Note:**

> i don't even know anymore, here take this


End file.
